Captial E Elsewhere
by thecommontimelord
Summary: Augustus finds himself in the afterlife, and it's nothing like he expected, but it is capital S Somewhere.
1. Chapter 1

"Gus we love you so much" Augustus mom had tears in her eyes, and so did his dad and his sister. Both of his parents were sitting on either side of him gripping his hands. Augustus had had bad nights in the hospital before but this time felt different, no matter how much medicine that they gave him the pain wouldn't go away, his body felt like it was on fire. The darkness was creeping in around the edge of the vision, and this time he knew that he going.

"I love all of you too" he said weakly, his wished that Hazel Grace was here, he had seen her earlier that day but their was so much that he wanted to tell her and now he would never get the chance. The darkness was coming faster, it was getting harder to breathe. Fear shot through him, maybe he was wrong, maybe their was nothing after maybe it was just darkness. He didn't see any bright light, and his life didn't flash before his eyes. The darkness just enveloped him, and then Augustus Waters felt nothing at all.

For the first time in months Augustus woke up and felt no pain in his body. He slowly opened up his eyes and looked around the room expecting to find himself still in the hospital but instead he was in a small unfamiliar room with brightly colored wall paper that was in sharp contrast to the sterile white walls of the hospital.

Augustus quickly sat up in bed and hit his head on the top of the bunk bed he was in.

"Oww" he said rubbing the top of his head. He was surprised by how easy it was to sit up. In the last several weeks every little moment took so much energy, he hadn't felt this well, he couldn't remember .

"Oh you're up" Agustus looked over and saw a boy, around the age of 12 hanging down from the top bunk bed, he was very pale and skinny, he also had no hair. He looked like any one of the hundreds of kids that frequented the Childrens hospital.

"My name is Luke" said the boy.

"Augustus Waters" he said, and glanced around the room, there was a small round window next to him and when he looked out it all he could see was water all around them.

"Were on a boat!"said Augustus. For the first time in his life Augustus was at a loss for words. The last thing that he remembered was being in the hospital room, his family had been their, and every things had hurt...

"Are we dead? " Augustus asked, he really hoped that the afterlife was more than just this room. But he wasn't in pain and he wasn't well, non existent, which was definitely a plus.

"Ya I think so" Luke said "I have, well, had leukemia, I was in the hospital and things were not going very well, and then well" Luke gestured to the room around him. Luke didn't sound sad when he said that he was dead he just sounded very matter of fact about it. Augustus took a moment to process the fact that he had died. He knew that his parents and sisters would be devastated, but they all believed that their was life after death, and that would give them some comfort, but Hazel Grace… Augustus didn't want to think about what she was going threw right now. He didn't know what he would do if their positions were reversed.

"I had bone cancer, I was fine for a long time but then I had a relapse." Augustus tried not to think about Hazel. Besides he knew the chances of him seeing her again soon were very high.

Augustus heard a knock on the door and got up out of bed to answer it. That's when he noticed something very obvious. He had two legs! For the first time in forever Augustus was able to stand on his own two feet. A surge of joy rushed through him, this afterlife wasn't half bad. Slowly at first, forgetting what it was like to walk on his own two feet, Gus made his way to the door. He opened the door to find a single piece of paper on the floor he picked it up and read it. "Dear Mr. Waters your presence is requested at the observation deck, now"


	2. Chapter 2

After being confined to a wheelchair for so long, and after not being dual legged for years, it took all of Augustus willpower not to skip down the halls. He had forgotten what it felt like two walk with both of his legs. He was all alone, Luke had already gotten his letter, and Luke hadn't sounded very happy when he talked about it, and a small part of him was afraid of what awaited him on the observation deck. But that small part of his mind was overshadowed by the fact that he could walk and run again.

The ship was like a maze, and as Augustus attempted to navigate the winding corridors he let his mind ponder the metaphors of afterlife being a cruise ship. It had to be going some where, although a cruise ship was a very strange thing to be in the afterlife, so it wasn't to farfetched of an idea that he would spend the rest of eternity on this ship.

After wandering down another identical hallway he saw a set of stairs with a large arrow pointing upward that said Observation deck this way. He hurriedly climbed the stairs and emerged into the sunlight. There were tables, and a shuffleboard, how he imagined that any other cruise ship would look, but each side of the railing was lined with binoculars like people would use for sight seeing. Most of the binoculars were occupied,mostly old people, which made sense since this was the afterlife, there were only a handful of teenagers. Most of the people were crying silently as they looked through the binoculars, there was one girl who looked like she was his age, who had curled up into a little ball and was crying hysterically, he could also hear her yelling obscenities.

Fear had replaced his good mood, and he stepped up to the binoculars, both of his hands shaking, and looked through.

He got to see his own funeral after all. He was looking at the literal hand of Jesus, and the first thing that he saw was himself, laying in a open casket. He was wearing his death suit, and his face looked wrong, like it was plastic. He felt sick to his stomach and felt like he might throw up. He looked away from the binoculars for a moment and took a deep breath to steady himself before he looked back through the binoculars

The next think that he saw was his parents. Both of them had bloodshot, puffy eyes, and both of them looked like they had aged 10 years. He swallowed hard, he didn't know why he thought they would be okay. He felt guilty for every single happy thought he had since dying. Then he saw Hazel Grace, and he would have gladly given back his leg to be with her again. This was all that he had managed to accomplish in his short life, he didn't die a death that would help others, or advance some great cause, all he had done was die a death that left pain and tears behind. He had never quite understood Hazels grenade metaphor until this moment. .All he could hope was that Peter Van Huten would keep his promise and tell Hazel what happened to the characters after the book was over, and that he would write her an Eulogy he could at least give Hazel that.

Augustus refocused the binoculars on Hazel Grace, she had taken out both of the tubes in her nose and she was walking over to his casket. Augustus breath caught when he saw her taking out a pack of cigarettes from her purse.

"You can smoke these I won't mind" Hazel said and slipped the cigarette pack into his casket and then he kissed his body on the head. Augustus let out a weak sob. Hazel looked older too, like an old woman stuck in a teenagers body.

"I'm okay Hazel Grace I'm okay" said Augustus said his voice cracking. He wished he could talk to her, and tell her that and his parents too. Hazel was walking back down to her seat and she put back the tubes back in her nose.

He was scanning the crowd of people at his funeral when his eyes landed on Peter Van Houten. He had come after all he had to tell Hazel what happened now, he just had to. Shortly after that people started to make speeches about him. Augustus really wanted to stop watching but he wanted to see what Hazel would say about him. It seemed to take hours to get to her speech, and despite everything he couldn't help himself from laughing when the priest called Hazel his "special friend."

"There was a quote that me and Augustus both found very comforting…" And that was how the rest of the speech went. It was bullshit that neither he nor Hazel believed in, and he was glad that he had gotten the hear her pre funeral speech, he liked that one better. But throughout her whole speech he kept his eyes on his parents. Both of them were nodding and at parts smiling during her speech. He knew that Hazel didn't believe in anything that she was saying but it made his parents feel better, and for that he was extremely grateful to her. Both of his parents really liked Hazel, they would help each other. After Hazels speech was over, Agustus couldn't watch anymore he looked away from the binoculars, and sat down on the deck, he felt alone and guilty, and he missed his parents and Hazel Grace. And so for the first time since he died he put his head in his hands and cried.


	3. Chapter 3

Augustus sat on the deck for a very long time. He cried, out of guilt and sadness, and loneliness to. He wanted nothing more than to have one more conversation with Hazel or his parents, but the world was not a wish granting factory, and neither did it seem, was the afterlife. He wished that Hazel was there with him, and then he got mad at himself for wishing that she was dead. After sometime a voice came on over the intercom telling them to get off the boat. The people on the deck all started to get up and move. It took Augustus a few moment to pick himself up. He no longerfelt sad, just numb. Augustus aimlessly followed the crowd of people heading off the boat. Eventually the crowd swept him off the boat and onto the docks, written in large letter above the dock was a sign that said Welcome to Elsewhere. What a strange name for the afterlife, though Augustus, he pondered the many metaphors behind the name trying to make himself feel better. He noticed many people rushing into the crowd greeting people, some of them were breaking down in tears, no one came to greet him though, so he just kept walking. As he did the crowd of people around him got smaller smaller. Augustus looked around for the first time, Elsewhere looked a lot like vacation town, there were palm trees and a beach near the dock, and a pleasant warm breeze. He was still pondering the many metaphors as the name Elsewhere, when he stopped dead in his tracks. Standing at the end of the dock was Caroline Mathews.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hello Augustus." said Caroline she smiled at him.

"Um" It was one of the few times when he could think of nothing to say. He should have realised that she would be here, Augustus ran through the long list of dead people that he knew in his head, how many of them would he see here?

Caroline looked very different from the last time that he had seen her, more like the photos he had seen of her before she got sick, her long black hair had grown back from the short chemo damaged hair that she had before, if he hadn't seen all of the photos of her precancer on her facebook page she would have been unrecognizable.

"Sorry it must be a bit surprising seeing me here, it's a lot to take in." Caroline gave him a quick hug, and Augustus could feel himself blushing, this was no what he thought the afterlife would be like, He already felt guilty about the pain he was putting Hazel Grace through and this certainly wasn't helping matters.

"Um it's nice to see you too" Gus said. His head was reeling from the sudden turn of events to think of anything witty, to say. The way that she was looking at him was making him uncomfortable, she couldn't still have feelings for him could she? They had dated over a year ago, and she was well dead. Although he was to now.

"Is there anyone else that you know who might be coming to meet you?" Caroline asked him. Both of his Grandparents were still alive, and every dead person that he knew was his age or younger and he had never been very close to any of them.

"Not that I am aware of." He responded.

"Great there's kind of a community of us, cancer kids who don't have any other family here."

"Well.." Gus tried to think of a reasonable excuse as to why he couldn't go with her, but nothing came to his mind, and to be honest he really didn't have any where to stay.

"Please Gus, I really couldn't let you go knowing that you don't have any where to stay."

"Alright." he said still feeling very uneasy about the whole situation. Augustus followed Caroline off the deck and into her car, it was a mini cooper. He had to duck to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling of the car. Caroline backed up the car without hitting anything, and then proceeded to drive down the road at a rather alarming speed.

"I only have my licence a little longer so I figure I better use it while I can."

Augustus noded tensely and grabbed onto the seat rest, understanding for the first time why Hazel Grace did not like driving with him.

"It's all a bit shocking isn't it? I remember my first day here it was… strange." She looked at him expecting some kind of response, but Augustus was still trying to wrap his head around what was happening. it was bizarre to see Caroline like this, driving, and talking. Before she had died she had been unbearable, this was the first time they had anything resembling a normal conversation.

"Strange is one word for it." Said Augustus. He turned his head and looked out the window, this place Elsewhere looked a lot like earth.

They pulled up in front of a house that was twice the size of Gus's old house, it looked almost like a castle there were vines growing up the side of, and there were two towers one each side of the house.

"Wow." he said "How many people live here?"

"Right now, 14 including you. Caroline said "But it changes a lot, like when I first got here there were 20 people living here but most people leave after a few months."

Caroline turned the car off and turned to look at Gus.

"Listen Augustus,.." Caroline said putting her hand on his shoulder

"Caroline stop" Augustus said "When we were together we did not have a happy relationship and now I have girlfriend that's back on earth and I love her present tense and she loves me present tense."

Caroline looked at him surprised and and sad, "I'm sorry" she said holding back tears, "It's just, I don't remember much from when I was alive , just bits and pieces, I was so confused when I first died, I didn't even remember what my name, after a while some things started to come back but there are just, these huge holes in my memory, I barely remember anything from that last year, but I remember you being there, and I just thought... " she trailed off.

"Caroline, I'm so sorry" he said.

"It's alright" she said giving him a sad smile "It's not your fault that I got brain cancer, lets just start over as friends."

"That sounds good" said Augustus. Caroline whipped the last of the tears off of her face.

"Come on everyone will want to meet you.


End file.
